By year's end, Florida is on pace to become the No. 1 state in concealed-weapons permits, as the Sunshine State is expected to hit the 1 million mark.

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"Earlier this year we were getting more applications than at any time in our history," Department of Agriculture spokesman Sterling Ivey said.

The department has been so flooded with applications that it has expanded its popular Fast Track offices, which allow applicants to be fingerprinted, photographed and have their application notarized all in one place.

Ivey said that in April 2011, the department had received 29,000 applications. In April 2012, that number was nearly 50,000.

Ivey said his department cannot connect the recent shootings in Colorado to any additional increase in applications because the application process works slowly and typically takes 30 to 90 days.

However, applicants who spoke to WPBF 25 News at one of the state's eight Fast Track licensing offices Monday said Colorado was definitely on their minds.

"I think if someone in that movie theater had a concealed-weapons license, they may have been able to prevent a whole lot of this happening," said a woman named Kira, who declined to give her last name. "I definitely would have been one of the people to use it."